The Political Junkie offers an outside-looking- in view of the US. Each day, we will highlight news and opinion pieces from around the world that are focused on US politics and policy. Agree or disagree with the opinions you will read but take a few minutes to see yourselves as others see you.

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Sunday, October 14, 2012

UK: How textbooks shape a culture

The Economist

It ain’t necessarily so

The textbooks children learn from in school reveal and shape national attitudes—and should provoke debate

Oct 13th 2012 | BRAUNSCHWEIG
Sex seems a particularly American difficulty. In September the New
York Civil Liberties Union published a study on sex education in schools
in conservative upstate New York. The research showed that all the most
commonly used health textbooks are stubbornly silent on the subject of
condoms or other contraceptives as methods of preventing pregnancy or
sexually transmitted diseases. Teachers are allowed to add their own
materials and say what they want in class; but they must still teach
from textbooks that warn pupils that being sexually active “interferes
with your values and family guidelines” and counsel them that abstinence
is a sign of good character.
In America creationists—mostly of the Christian variety—have long
campaigned for textbooks to include alternatives to evolution by natural
selection as an account of the natural world and human origins. They
are not the only ones. In June a campaign led by the Society for
Textbook Revise (STR) appeared to have succeeded in persuading South
Korea’s textbook publishers to remove certain references to evolution.
The umbrella group responsible for the STR includes the Somang Church,
one of a number of evangelical churches and megachurches that are
increasingly active in Korean politics.
The STR’s shenanigans led to uproar (although Christianity is growing
in South Korea, a sizeable number of people declare no religious
affiliation at all). The government has now set up a panel, led by the
Korean Academy of Science and Technology and including biologists and
palaeontologists, to oversee any changes to science books. The committee
stressed that evolution was a part of modern science that all children
must study. The STR, which sees its exclusion from the committee as a
sign of bias, says it will fight on.